Changes in professionalism through the practice of telemedicine: Conceptualizing a situated sense filter

Abstract

Drawing on Schatzki's theoretical concepts of practice, this article explores how health professionals change and form professionalism in the encounter with practices in telemedicine settings with physiotherapeutic online exercises and nursing video consultations in-home care in two municipalities in Denmark. Analyses in this paper bases on an 18-month ethnographic field study with 158 observations with ethnographic interviews and 16 interviews with six health professionals (n=6), to get insight into health professionals experiences on health professionals experiences on practices in telemedicine settings. Drawing on the analyses the paper unfolds a concept, "situated-sense-filtering" as a professional method. The concept demonstrates how individuals interpretation of ontologically altered practice changes and forms professionalism. The paper emphasizes a point that lack of collective interpretations of professionalism overrides professions' influence on their professionalism. The article suggests political and institutional supports on professional collective processes changing professionalism through the practice of telemedicine.